Utah Topic Ideas for National History Day

When you're thinking of ideas for your History Day project, be sure to consider Utah history. Why? When you choose a local topic, you're likely to find a wealth of primary resources right on your doorstep. Here are some great ideas for topics with a Utah angle.

Explorers, Travel, and Trade in Early Utah • Rivera Expedition • Dominguez-Escalante Expedition • Shoshone, Pauite, Ute, Gosiute, Navajo Trade Networks – The Old Spanish Trail • Trappers and the Fur Trade • James Beckwourth, African-American Fur Trader • Jim Bridger • Peter Skene Ogden • Etienne Provost • Jedediah Smith • John Weber • The Donner-Reed Party • John C. Fremont • Miles Goodyear • Stansbury Expedition (UHQ) • Gunnison Expedition • Simpson Expedition • Pony Express • John Wesley Powell • Hole-in-the-Rock Trek • John Macomb

Science and Technology in Utah History • Women inventors in Utah Territory (UHQ) • John Wesley Powell’s Geographic Surveys • Paleontology and Utah’s Dinosaur Rush (UHQ) • Dr. John Widtsoe – Father of Dry Farming • Invention of the Television, Philo T. Farnsworth • Thiokol and the Exploration of Space • The Artificial Heart • The Dirty Harry Nuclear Test, Nevada Test Site • The Downwinders • Utah’s Missile Launch Sites (UHQ) • Exploring Speed on the Salt Flats • Digital Pathbreakers: WordPerfect and Novell Utah’s Diverse Cultures • Native American Histories o Washakie o Ouray o Tabby-To-Kwana o Utes and Settlers in Utah Valley o Walkara and the Walker War o Black Hawk War and Circleville Massacre o Reservation Life o Indian Boarding Schools in Utah o Urban Indian Communities • Mormon Histories o Immigrant communities o Mormon colonization of Deseret o Native American-Mormon Relations in Early Utah o Mormon United Orders/communitarianism o Zions Cooperative Mercantile Institution th o Mormon-Gentile Relations in 19 Century Utah o Mormon-Federal Encounters & Exchange - The Utah War, Polygamy, Statehood o The Reed-Smoot Hearings – an encounter over Mormon polygamy o Colonel Thomas Kane • Railroad Communities and Cultures o Chinese workers and communities o Corinne – A Railroad Town in Mormon Utah o Legacy of the Golden Spike o Robert Brewster Stanton’s Railroad • Mining in Utah – Work, Trade, and Workers’ Rights o Carbon County – Cultural Crossroads o Bingham Canyon Mining Communities o Thomas Kearns o Labor unions in Utah - United Mine Workers, Western Federation of Miners, National Miner’s Union, United Steelworkers of America, o Joe Hill and the IWW o Utah Copper/Bingham Canyon Strike of 1912 o Winter Quarters Mine Disaster • African-American communities • Jewish communities o Samuel & Frederick Auerbach, Utah retailers o Simon Bamberger, Utah Governor o Benjamin Brown o Clarion, a Jewish colony • Greek communities o Leonidas Skliris, padrone o Georgia Magerou, midwife • Italian communities • Scandinavian communities • Japanese communities • Pacific Islanders and the Iosepa Settlement • Latino people & culture • War brides in Utah • 20th Century Refugee Communities • Intellectuals & the Arts o The Salt Lake Theater o Bernard DeVoto o Wallace Stegner

Depression and Wartime in Utah • Wartime industry & mobilization • German internees at Fort Douglas • Topaz Japanese Internment Camp • Marriner S. Eccles, architect of the New Deal • Col. Gail Halvorsen, the Candy Bomber • The Civilian Conservation Corps • Postwar reintegration

Civil Rights in Utah • Woman Suffrage and the Mormons • Kanab’s All-Woman Town Council of 1912 (UHQ) • ERA: The Equal Rights Amendment and Women’s Rights in Utah • Stephen Holbrook and Utah’s NAACP (UHRC) • Mormonism and African-Americans • Race Riots and BYU Athletics (UHQ) • Adoption of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday in Utah • SOCIO: Spanish Speaking Organization for Community, Integrity, and Opportunity & Armando Solorzano

Tourism • Berg Halstrom and River Rafting in Utah • Ski Utah! • International Peace Garden • Goblin Valley • The Lincoln Highway • Utah’s Highway 89 • Utah's National Parks • Dr. Arthur Leroy Inglesby (UHRC) • Everett Ruess – Canyon Country Explorer • David D. Rust (1874–1963) – Canyon Country Guide

Environmental History • Echo Park Dam Controversy • Glen Canyon Dam/Colorado River Storage Act (1956) • CUP: The Central Utah Project • Ranchers, Rangelands, and Grazing • Grand Staircase and the Federal Antiquities Act • Environmentalists and engineers in Cache Valley, 1965-1990s (UHQ) • Sagebrush Rebellion/Wise Use Movement • The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in Utah • Wilderness in Utah: SUWA, roadless debates • Edward Abbey: activist/author, Desert Solitaire • Mormons and the MX Missile

KEY UHQ Utah Historical Quarterly UHRC Utah State History Research Center – Search the combined resources of the Utah State Historical Society and Utah State Archives: http://heritage.utah.gov/history/research-center

Tip: Introductory information on many of these topics can be found in our online encyclopedia of Utah history – History To Go ( http://historytogo.utah.gov )